Arrowhead Pride
During Sunday’s 22-19 loss to the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs offense failed in many different ways. The run-pass splits, the lack of intermediate passing game and how it performed against the blitz were just some of the entries on a long list.
But one thing that really stood out was how poorly Kansas City did against Denver’s man coverage. While the Broncos are elite in man coverage, their star cornerback Patrick Surtain did not play. This should have been an opportunity for the Chiefs — one of the league’s top offenses — to take advantage of lesser defensive backs, creating chunk gains with their fast receivers.
But that’s not what happened. Kansas City was flat-out exposed by the Denver secondary. The Chiefs’ receivers were unable to create separation on their own — and when the team called plays designed to beat man coverage, the receivers could only gain three or four yards. That created third-and-long situations that put the offense against Denver’s fierce pass rush and blitz packages.
How did this happen? Let’s take a look.
While this play was kind of unique, it wasn’t a great sign for the rest of the game.
This is on the team’s first drive. Tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Rashee Rice run into each other on in-breaking routes. That eliminates both players from being options, which leaves wide receiver Hollywood Brown running an option route and wide receiver Xavier Worthy kind of filling space. Nothing gets open and Kansas City gets called for a hold.
One of my frustrations with how the Chiefs have built their wide receiver group is that they are terrible in contested-catch situations. The only wideout who can catch in traffic is Tyquan Thornton. Everyone else is bad at it.
In Sunday’s game, that showed up with Rice in two different instances.
On both of these plays, Rice is the back side receiver — or the X receiver. His job is to get off press coverage and win on these fade routes.
And on both plays, Rice creates no separation with his release or downfield — and then doesn’t bring in the contested catch. The second one is especially frustrating. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes lays out a great pass in a spot where Rice can get it with both hands, but he totally misses what should’ve been a catch.
A team’s best receiver has to bring in catches like this. Yes… Rice should have created more separation, but he was playing against good coverage. In those situations, he has to be able to gain position against the defender and bring in tough catches. That’s what the best receivers do. But against Denver, Rice wasn’t doing it.
The Chiefs have had this problem for several years. They don’t have a receiver who can align on the back side of a formation and beat man coverage. If that receiver is really good, the defense is forced to shade a safety over him, which removes a...
